Topical items and views on the impact of digitisation on publishing and its content and the issues that make the news. This blog follows the report 'Brave New World',
(http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/vcil/bravenewworld.html ), published by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland and authored by Martyn Daniels. The views and comments expressed are those of the author.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Bibliophile Offers Thousands Of Collection Points

Sometimes something so simple is created one wonders why it hadn’t happened before.

Today a 30 year old UK mail order and online bookseller/retailer BibliophileBooks.com has joined forces with the recently launched Collect+ to announce a new service to their tens of thousands of their internet customers.

Delivery options can be a deal-breaker for online retailers. Free delivery offers are quite common, yet until now, none offer delivery to specified convenient collection points. This new service will mean no more waiting in all day for that parcel to arrive, or that slip that says you weren’t in and can you come and collect that parcel of books. The new service offers deliver of parcels to local shops and could be a compelling prospect for customers who may have work commitments, cannot accept deliveries at the workplace, live in multi-occupancy buildings or find it risky to leave a parcel with a neighbour or outside their home.

Now parcels can be delivered to any one of thousands of local convenience stores which offer the Collect+ service and pick them up at a time that suits them.

Customers will be able to merely enter their postcode online to find their local Collect+ store and have up to 10 days from the date the parcel arrives at the Collect+ location to pick it up. Stores are open at least 9 hours a day 7 days a week. Customers who provide a mobile phone number or email address when placing their order and will be advised by text or email when the parcel has reached the local store they have nominated for collection. The parcel will be delivered to the store through Yodel (trading name for Home Delivery Network Limited) with whom Bibliophile have had an 8 year relationship.

The new Collect+ joint venture between Yodel and PayPoint PLCgives access to 3,500 selected outlets from the UK PayPoint network to ensure that over 90% of the UK population are within 2 miles of a participating store in urban areas. In terms of Bibliophile’s environmental policy, they celebrate that this service will result in far fewer wasted delivery journeys to their tens of thousands of customers throughout the UK.

About Me

Before entering publishing I worked for many years as a Senior Executive in blue chip organisations in the retail, oil and automotive sectors. My publishing induction was initially as Director of Strategic Development at VISTA. There I was responsible for, and a contributor to, their highly acclaimed ‘Publishing in the 21st Century’ research series, the primary creator behind publishing services PubEasy and ‘batch.co.uk’, the initiator of the development of new Front Office systems to support publishers. In 2006 I joined Value Chain International(VCIL) initially as VP Marketing, Media and Publishing before becoming their President in 2009. In July 2011 the company's operations were acquired by Syncordia. I hold two non executive positions with publishing industry players Bibliophile Ltd and Haven Group and currently setting up Read Petite a service focused on providing digital short form material online via subscription.
Email mdaniels@opus57.co.uk